How to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile and Raise Visibility: 8 Tips and Tricks

LinkedIn is changing. It is no longer an online CV or solely a recruitment tool. A well-crafted and up-to-date LinkedIn profile can help you build your personal and business brand, make connections, and generate business and career opportunities.

LinkedIn’s mission is simple: “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help you be great at what you do.”

When you think of your profile and activity, is it fulfilling the LinkedIn mission?
Is it making you more successful and productive?
How are you showing up?
Is it helping YOU “be great”?

Why LinkedIn is Different

The uniqueness of LinkedIn is that you can present yourself the way you want – in the direction that your career or business needs. It is not about listing your duties, creating nothing more than your job description.

You can show how you make an impact to your peers, clients and contacts, why you have taken your professional path, and how you have gained your skills.

Put simply, LinkedIn is the window to your professional world: to people you know, and people that want to know you!

For the purpose of this article, I am assuming you have an established LinkedIn profile, with a clear, inviting headshot and a headline that concisely demonstrates:

What you do,
Who you do it for and
How you do it.

With over 106 million active users, it really is somewhere you need to “be” and need to use every day!

However, in real terms, this is not always possible. With day jobs, clients, contacts and families, the best advice is to schedule time to manage your account, and automate other activity (through tools like Hootsuite or Buffer) to get the best out of the site.

How to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile and Raise Visibility: 8 Tips and Tricks

However, there are some amazing tricks of the trade that will help you improve your LinkedIn profile and allow your it to work for you whilst you work, sleep and socialise. Trust me when I say that these tricks will help you with your work-life balance and develop your career in the way you want.

1. Be Search Engine Friendly

You can make your profile publically available so your profile can appear in search engines. This helps with your social proof and raises your brand. You are able to decide which areas of your profile you want to be viewable by all; you can control this through the “Edit public profile and URL” button.

However, you want to be found when someone is searching for someone like you – for someone who offers the services or products or skills you do. Consider what the relevant key words are and make sure they are included in your profile.

2. Don’t Hide Away

LinkedIn Error 101 is failing to ensure your contact details are up to date.

You can make sure you are contactable by including your current email, as well as moving your connections to other social media profiles by including your website and Twitter details.

3. Create a Personalised Linkedin Profile

When you click on your profile, you will notice that you have a personalised link. LinkedIn will automatically generate this link, and sees fit to include lots of random numbers and letters! Through your “edit” function, you can change this and make it personalised. Mine is https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarawilcox/.

4. Link Up Outside Of Linkedin

How else are you using your LinkedIn profile? There is a wonderful ability to create a stylish link for your email signature or your website and invite people to connect with you. Just find “Create a public profile badge” within your profile edit options.

Every time someone visits your site or receives an email from you (even your out-of-office autoresponse), there are options for contacts to find out more about you, as, by now, you will have a public profile.

5. Shout About Your News

Don’t be shy about your achievements. You may find you are in a job or business where your name is used frequently; do you then share this information?

LinkedIn has the capacity to automatically message your contacts whenever your name appears in the news. How amazing is that! You simply need to give the site “permission”.

6. Your Skills – You Are in Charge

Have you noticed that you are getting endorsements for your skills? Did you know that you can add in the skills that you want to be rated on, and then reorder how they are presented on your profile?

Not only will this give you extra credibility, demonstrate how others see you and become a selling point, but these can also be used as part of the search profile – another way you and your business can be found!

7. Multiple Languages

Work overseas or with overseas clients? You can create another LinkedIn profile in another language.

You are going to need to input the content as there is currently no automatic translation option – but who knows, that may be created in the future! This will allow your profile to be shown on the screens of people currently searching in another language.

8. Let It Be Your Sales Tool

When you are looking to work with someone, what do you look for? Recommendations and testimonials will build trust and provide independent feedback on how you can help someone.

If you are job searching, it is very common for recruiters or potential employers to review profiles. Displaying feedback from colleagues, managers and suppliers demonstrates how great you are, and how amazing you could be for their team. Have you asked for feedback?

These are my eight quick and simple ways to upgrade your LinkedIn profile today. With LinkedIn evolving, the simple “edit” button (which shows up as a stylish pencil) is the tool to create a profile that shines and works for you, whilst you rest, play, work and sleep!

Who would have thought being on one more social media channel would actually help your work-life balance?

Over to You

Do you have any LinkedIn tips and tricks to share with us? Tell us what tips you’re excited about from our list! We’d love to hear from you.

Clara offers a full LinkedIn consultancy, including feedback, and can work with you to create an approach to fulfil your immediate career or business needs. Usually priced at £100, Money Nuggets readers can get this for £75. Find out more about the “Fast and Focused Results” on her site.

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Clara Wilcox

Clara Wilcox is a straight-talking, practical and experienced coach helping clients navigate the tricky waters of returning to work, career changes and professional development.

The Balance Collective is a social enterprise focused on improving the lives of parents, by working together to build inner confidence and promote a healthy work/life balance.